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Showing posts from August, 2012

Literary Theory: Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis on Prezi Freud – the interpretation of dreams in 1901 The importance of the unconscious instinctive urges Question – why did this new emphasis on the unconscious place greater significance on literature? Freud expounded a theory that human instincts, yearnings, desires, etc. are so powerful that they often find ways of expressing themselves outside of the control of the ego, or of social prohibitions. “ The super-ego is the moral component of the psyche, which takes into account no special circumstances in which the morally right thing may not be right for a given situation. The rational ego attempts to exact a balance between the impractical hedonism of the id and the equally impractical moralism of the super-ego; it is the part of the psyche that is usually reflected most directly in a person's actions. When overburdened or threatened by its tasks, it may employ defense mechanisms including denial , repression , and dis